Les Journées de la Naturalité · 2028

Agoris analysis · updated October 2026

Key takeaways

• Les Journées de la Naturalité are the business convention of Innov'Alliance, the competitiveness cluster for naturality: two days of conferences, round tables and pre-scheduled 20-minute B2B meetings, with exhibition stands. The organiser presents them as "the 1st cross-sector event 100% dedicated to naturality".
• Five plant-based sectors meet there: agriculture, agri-food, cosmetics, nutraceuticals, perfumes and aromas. Manufacturers, start-ups, researchers and institutional players come to make contacts and identify new partners.
• Next edition: the 4th, announced for 2028. Neither the dates nor the venue have been published to date. The first three editions were all held at the Centre des Congrès du Palais des Papes, in Avignon, over a Wednesday and Thursday.
• Organiser: Innov'Alliance, a state-labelled competitiveness cluster headquartered in Avignon. No co-organiser.
• Biennial frequency, on even-numbered years: 2022, 2024, 2026, then 2028.
• Results of the 3rd edition, on 1 and 2 April 2026: over 220 professionals, over 510 B2B meetings, 15 conferences and 6 round tables.

Who takes part

Typical profile

The organiser's 2026 results report presents the event as a format where people come to move their projects forward, rather than simply to attend. The event connects the upstream and downstream of the plant-based value chains: agricultural production, ingredients, cosmetics, food supplement and aroma brands, technical solution providers and research laboratories. The organiser's 2026 results report describes targeted introductions between manufacturers, researchers, start-ups and institutional players.

The common thread is naturality, which the cluster defines as the way products from the land become sustainable, responsible and transparent solutions, from their design to their consumption. The registration grid reflects the intended audience: it distinguishes start-ups, whether or not they are members of the cluster, from other organisations, whether or not they are members.

Notable participants

The website publishes no named list of exhibitors. The most visible companies at the 2026 edition are its partners, ranked in three tiers in the results report published by Innov'Alliance: Antofenol, Aroma-Zone and Groupe CAPL as Gold partners; Phytocontrol and INRAE as Silver partners; Acanthis, Arkopharma, Dachser, Gattefossé, Givaudan, Groupe L'Occitane, Naemos, Ovin'Alp, the printer Pierotti & Léger, Squali and Urbasolar as Bronze partners.

The 2026 programme completes the picture. Speakers notably included L'Occitane, Givaudan, Gattefossé, the Laboratoires Boiron, Aroma-Zone, Naemos, Phytocontrol, Acanthis, Antofenol, INRAE, AgroParisTech, Avignon Université, CEEBIOS and Extractis. The Partners page of the official website shows the logos of the 2026 edition.

Quality of the exchanges

The heart of the format is the business convention. According to the official B2B meetings page (written for the 2024 edition), each participant requests or accepts meetings in advance; one week before the event, they receive a personalised schedule, built solely from the meetings they have requested or accepted. The 20-minute slots run in parallel with the conferences, so everyone has to choose between listening and prospecting.

Volumes are rising from one edition to the next: over 400 B2B meetings for 190 industry players in 2024, over 510 for over 220 professionals in 2026. Innov'Alliance also reports a feedback score for the event of 4.5 out of 5 for the 2024 edition. No third-party audit of attendance is published: these figures are the organiser's.

Programme & community

Conference programme

The programme is built by a scientific committee that brings together universities and manufacturers. In 2026, its members notably included representatives of Avignon Université, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université Côte d'Azur, Aix-Marseille Université, Robertet, Givaudan, Ovin'Alp and La Ferme Digitale.

The 2026 edition was organised around four themes over two days. The first dealt with the economic robustness of models based on naturality, with two round tables: the financing of naturality in Région Sud, then territorial anchoring as a performance lever. The second covered biomimicry, low-tech and the intelligence of living systems, with contributions from CEEBIOS, the Laboratoires Boiron and Gattefossé, followed by a discussion between L'Occitane, Naemos and Aroma-Zone. The third, devoted to invisible ecosystems, covered bioprocesses, industrial fermentation, enzymatic extraction and microbial production of hyaluronic acid. The fourth addressed the resilience of industries in the face of climate change: soil health, biocontrol from agricultural co-products, agroecology, water reuse in the food industry and management of environmental impact.

The opening session, at the Cellier Benoît XII, was devoted to innovation and sovereignty. The 2028 programme has not been published.

Community & networks

The event is the showcase of the Innov'Alliance network. Based in the Grand Sud, in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Occitanie, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Corsica, the cluster states that it has over 300 active members and holds 35 events a year. Its members benefit from a reduced registration fee.

The funders of the 2026 edition were Région Sud, the Vaucluse département, Grand Avignon and the City of Avignon. Industries Cosmétiques was the press partner.

On the first evening, a reception brings the participants together: in 2026, at the Rouge Gorge, at the foot of the Palais des Papes. In the results report for that edition, the president of Innov'Alliance, Jean-François Gonidec, sums up the stakes in a single sentence: "Naturality is no longer an option but a survival imperative".

On site: what you need to know

The three past editions were held at the Centre des Congrès du Palais des Papes, in the heart of Avignon's historic centre. Operated by Avignon Tourisme, the venue has 16 spaces, including 1,800 m² of exhibition space spread across four rooms, and celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2026. The venue for the 2028 edition has not yet been announced.

In 2026, the opening session was held at the Cellier Benoît XII, the conferences, B2B meetings and breaks at the Espace Jeanne Laurent, and the buffet lunches in the Panèterie room. The operator places the Espace Jeanne Laurent a stone's throw from the Centre des Congrès, in the Rocher des Doms garden (montée Jean XXII), and not on the place du Palais des Papes, while still counting it among the spaces offered together with the Centre des Congrès.

By train, Avignon TGV station is about 2 hours 40 minutes from Paris, 1 hour from Lyon and 30 minutes from Marseille; the TER La Virgule line links it in 4 minutes to Avignon-Centre station. By car, the city is served by the A7 and A9 motorways, and the Palais des Papes car park, with 900 spaces, gives direct access to the Centre des Congrès. Marseille-Provence airport is about 45 minutes away by car.

In 2026, the welcome desk opened at 8.30am on the first day; the conferences ended at 3.40pm on the second, and the last B2B meeting slots of the second day at 5.15pm. The 2028 times have not been published. In 2026, entry was individual and by name.

How much it costs to take part

The 2028 pricing grid has not been published. The 2026 grid, displayed on the Registration page of the website before the event, gives the order of magnitude. Prices excluding VAT for a first entry:

• start-up that is a member of Innov'Alliance: €510 excl. VAT;
• non-member start-up: €640 excl. VAT;
• member: €680 excl. VAT;
• non-member: €850 excl. VAT.

The second and subsequent entries benefited from a 30% discount, i.e. from €357 to €595 excl. VAT depending on the category. Registration included the conferences, debates and round tables, the meeting sessions, the lunches, the coffee breaks and the evening reception of 1 April.

The 2026 cancellation terms were staggered: free of charge until 15 December 2025, €50 excl. VAT in administration fees until 31 January 2026, 50% withheld until 14 March, no refund thereafter.

To gain visibility, the 2026 edition offered three partnership tiers, Gold, Silver and Bronze. Their prices are not published, and no separate stand offer is presented online: requests go through the Partners page.

Preparing your visit

For the exhibitor or partner

• Join the website's mailing list to be notified when 2028 registrations open. For the April 2024 edition, the opening of registrations had been announced for 6 November 2023.
• Decide early: in 2024 as in 2026, cancellation was free of charge until 15 December preceding the event.
• Combine partnership with speaking opportunities: in 2026, several partners were also among the speakers in the programme.
• Take care over your contact profile and your meeting requests: according to the official B2B meetings page, written for 2024, the schedule is built only on the meetings requested or accepted.
• Come as a pair to cover both the conferences and the meetings: in 2026, the second entry benefited from a 30% discount.

For the decision-making attendee

• Prepare a list of targets by sector: the value of the event lies in the crossover between agriculture, ingredients, cosmetics, food supplements and aromas.
• Book meeting slots during the lower-priority conferences, as the two take place in parallel.
• Arrive the day before if you are coming from afar: the welcome desk opened at 8.30am on the first day in 2026.
• Keep the first evening free: it was included in the registration in 2026 and extends the meetings.

Policy & CSR initiatives

Ecological transition is the very subject matter of the event. The 2026 programme covered soil health, biocontrol, agroecology, water reuse and objective evidence of CSR commitment; the 2022 programme already addressed the integration of naturality into the environmental labelling of products.

This content should be distinguished from a commitment on the event's own footprint. Neither the Journées website nor Innov'Alliance publishes a CSR policy specific to the event, a carbon footprint assessment or an ISO 20121 certification for the Journées. The cluster makes environmental performance and CSR one of its areas of action for its members: this is a service of the network, not a measure of the event's impact.

The documented guarantee comes from the venue. Avignon Tourisme (Avignon Congrès Expo website), which operates the Centre des Congrès du Palais des Papes, is ISO 20121 certified by AFNOR: the certificate, valid from 4 June 2025 to 3 June 2028, covers the Centre des Congrès and the Espace Jeanne Laurent. Its published commitments include a responsible purchasing charter, coffee breaks made up solely of artisanal and local products, two-stream sorting for clients and five-stream sorting for the organisation, and an energy sobriety plan. The operator reports 100% low-energy lighting and an 8% drop in energy consumption in the first year, in a building listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The territorial anchoring is also verifiable: Région Sud, the Vaucluse département, Grand Avignon and the City of Avignon funded the 2026 edition.

How the event has evolved

Trajectory analysis

Launched in November 2022 as the new professional event for the naturality sectors, the Journées found their calendar from the second edition: early April, every two years and, so far, always at the Palais des Papes. The size remains contained, at around 200 professionals, a figure displayed from the announcement of the first edition.

Growth shows mainly in the intensity of the exchanges: 190 industry players and over 400 B2B meetings in 2024, over 220 professionals and over 510 meetings in 2026. The number of meetings is rising faster than attendance, which points to a format centred on connecting people rather than on exhibiting; the results reports give only minimum figures for the 2024 and 2026 meetings and for 2026 attendance.

The programme has followed the evolution of the subject. In 2022, the challenge was still to define naturality, with the presentation of a Livre Blanc de la Naturalité Économique (White Paper on Economic Naturality) at the opening, followed by agroecology, eco-extraction and upcycling. In 2024, the emphasis was on resources, biodiversity, water and consumer perception. In 2026, biomimicry, biotechnologies and the resilience of industries in the face of climate change took over. The 2028 dates have not been announced.

All data not attributed to a source comes from the organiser's website.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (journees-naturalite.fr).